AUSTIN — The fight over public school curricula and materials—many of which promote hazardous LGBT sexual behaviors and explicit sexual activity to children—continues in Texas.
Earlier this week, Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath (who heads the department overseeing the statewide school system) testified to the Texas House Public Education Committee at the state Capitol. The meeting was partially focused on “monitoring and analyzing the state policy on curriculum and instructional materials used in public schools.”
“A Lot of Weird Things Can Occur”
In an exchange with Morath, Democrat State Rep. James Talarico (Austin) initially called the issue “kooky” and “right-driven,” but Morath said the TEA has indeed reviewed questionable materials in Texas schools and has seen problems with the process of curricula selection.
“Inevitably, we’re gonna spend hours hearing bills that are just kind of conspiracy theory, right-driven, and kind of kooky stuff,” Talarico began. “So, I want to ask you about curriculum in Texas … critical race theory, pornography. These are the things that we’re seeing bubbling up on social media, and that’s going to be discussed here. Are you aware of any curriculum in the state of Texas that bullies students based on their race or grooms students with pornography?”
“It is a big state. The world is complex,” Morath replied. “The short answer to that question is yes, we have complaints that would appear to substantiate periodic instructional materials problems in those areas, arguably. We’ve reviewed, in some cases, materials made available to students that I think the common citizen would agree would be inappropriate.”
Talarico then asked if he saw it as one of the most pressing problems in the system.
“I do think that the question of what our kids are taught is a deeply important question,” Morath replied. “I have had my kids in two different schools, and I’ve seen them taught some stuff that ain’t great. … So, focusing on the quality and nature of the curriculum, making sure that it is free from ideological bias to the extent that we can—these are worthy objectives.”
Morath later added concern about the overall content selection process.
“Think about how instruction materials are chosen,” he said. “If you have materials where there is no effective oversight process for that selection, a lot of weird things can occur in that process. So, then the question is, should you go and strengthen the oversight procedures that are used for the selection of materials? And if you would, you would solve small problems and big problems at the same time.”
Sex the “Most Important Topic in School”?
Public school curricula and materials have been a contentious topic in Texas over the last two years, as COVID shutdowns enabled parents to learn more about what was actually happening in their children’s classrooms. Texas Scorecard has chronicled the ongoing issue, where districts have promoted LGBT sexual conduct to children (including hosting scantily clad drag queens and “Coming Out and Pronouns Days” for middle-schoolers), provided sexually explicit materials in school libraries, and taught kids as young as 5 about “trans” ideology (the idea you can turn into whatever biological sex you feel like).
Some sex-ed curricula even featured role-playing scenarios for students involving anal sex, oral sex, and a situation where an underage girl has a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old that she hides from her parents.
State Rep. Talarico, meanwhile, said in a different part of the meeting that sex ed is “maybe the most important topic that [students] will learn about in school,” and disagreed with new state laws requiring school districts to get written permission from parents before teaching the subject to their children.
He also temporarily left the committee room to participate in a “read-in” in the Capitol rotunda, where a few dozen people protested in support of keeping sexually explicit books in taxpayer-funded school libraries. Protestors read “banned” books in the rotunda for about 15 minutes.
“Texas Republicans are banning books in school libraries across our state… @GregAbbott_TX: you can borrow my copy of Fahrenheit 451,” Talarico tweeted, reading a book no one is trying to remove from kids’ school shelves.
“How about you stand up and loudly read the actual books in question?” replied one citizen.
“Dude, because the books found on shelves have been things like graphic novels with oral sex,” another wrote.
“So, now not allowing porn in schools is the same thing as book banning?” added citizen Kim Spain.
“The people who think everything published in book form today should be in the reach of unsupervised children,” added another.
The Republican Party of Texas has made “Stop Sexualizing Texas Kids” one of its priorities for the upcoming 2023 state legislative session. Over the next few months, state lawmakers will make decisions on important education policies for the statewide public school system.
Concerned citizens may contact their state representative, senator, and Gov. Abbott.
